Saturna Capital Corp Sells 8,956 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Saturna Capital Corp lowered its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.6% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,431,204 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 8,956 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 5.8% of Saturna Capital Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Saturna Capital Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $411,557,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. NewEdge Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 11.8% in the 4th quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 887,209 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $277,696,000 after purchasing an additional 93,293 shares during the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 89,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $25,679,000 after purchasing an additional 2,269 shares during the last quarter. Retail Employees Superannuation Pty Ltd as trustee for Retail Employees Superannuation Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $28,902,000. Private Advisory Group LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 12.2% during the 4th quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC now owns 24,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,736,000 after purchasing an additional 2,678 shares during the last quarter. Finally, W.G. Shaheen & Associates DBA Whitney & Co raised its holdings in Alphabet by 17.1% in the 4th quarter. W.G. Shaheen & Associates DBA Whitney & Co now owns 118,966 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $37,236,000 after buying an additional 17,415 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on GOOGL. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $393.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Loop Capital lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $355.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Wolfe Research reduced their price target on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Daiwa Securities Group upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $419.86.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $356.13 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $357.79 and a 200 day moving average of $339.30. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $187.82 and a 12 month high of $408.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.64.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $6.22. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.42%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total transaction of $3,142,911.42. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 75,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,298,044.10. This represents a 10.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total transaction of $387,061.50. Following the sale, the director owned 1,481 shares in the company, valued at approximately $545,941.03. This trade represents a 41.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 600,547 shares of company stock worth $16,255,540. Corporate insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) are increasingly viewed as credible alternatives to Nvidia chips. That could reduce Google’s dependence on external suppliers and create a potential external chip-revenue opportunity. Alphabet and Amazon custom AI chips
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary highlights Alphabet’s record quarter, strong Google Cloud growth, Gemini adoption and enterprise AI demand. Analysts and value-focused investors continue to view GOOGL as comparatively inexpensive among large technology and AI companies. Alphabet AI investment and valuation
• Positive Sentiment: Google is reportedly supporting a $15 billion Anthropic data-center project with chips and financial guarantees, while Oracle is expanding its partnership to bring Gemini models to enterprise applications. These initiatives could drive Google Cloud demand and strengthen Alphabet’s AI ecosystem. Anthropic data center backed by Google
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s reported quarterly earnings and revenue beat consensus estimates by wide margins, supporting the fundamental case, although investors remain focused on whether AI growth will translate into sufficient cash returns.
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet withdrew its Google Earth AI image-generation feature only one day after launch following criticism that fabricated imagery could spread misinformation. The quick reversal limits immediate product risk but raises questions about AI governance and rollout discipline. Google Earth AI feature withdrawn
• Negative Sentiment: The AI buildout is becoming increasingly expensive. Alphabet is targeting up to $205 billion in 2026 capital expenditures, while rising memory and infrastructure costs are pressuring cash flow and increasing future depreciation. AI buildout costs and cash flow
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider sales were small relative to the executives’ remaining holdings, but they provide a modest sentiment headwind. Separately, investor-law-firm investigations could create additional legal and reputational overhang. Alphabet director stock sale

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.